Starting emacs To enter emacs, just type its name: emacs To read in a file to edit, see Files, below. Table of Contents Leaving emacs Suspend emacs (the ususal way of leaving it) C-z Exit emacs permanently C-x C-c Table of Contents Files read a file into Emacs C-x C-f save a file back to disk C-x C-s {C-x C-\} insert contents of another file into this buffer C-x i replace this file with the file you really want C-x C-v write buffer to a specified file C-x C-w run Dired, the directory editor C-x d Table of Contents Getting help The Help system is simple. Type C-h and follow the directions. If you are a first-time user, type C-h t for a tutorial. (This card assumes you know the tutorial.) get rid of Help window C-x 1 scroll Help window ESC C-v apropos: show commands matching a string C-h a show the function a key runs C-h c describe a function C-h f get mode-specific information C-h m Table of Contents Error recovery abort partially typed of executing command C-g recover a file lost by a system crash M-x recover-file undo an unwanted change C-x u or C-_ restore a buffer to its original contents M-x revert-buffer redraw garbaged screen C-l Table of Contents Incremental search search forward C-s {C-\} search backward C-r regular expression search C-M-s {C-M-\} Use C-s {C-\} or C-r again to repeat the search in either direction. exit incremental search ESC undo effect of last character DEL abort current search C-g If Emacs is still searching, C-g will cancel the part of the search not done, otherwise it aborts the entire search. Table of Contents Motion Cursor motion entity to move over: backward forward character C-b C-f word M-b M-f line C-p C-n go to line beginning (or end) C-a C-e sentence M-a M-e paragraph M-[ {M-+} M-] page C-x [ C-x ] sexp C-M-b C-x-f function C-M-a C-M-e go to buffer beginning (or end) M-< M-> Screen motion scroll to next screen C-v scroll to previous screen M-v scroll left C-x < scroll right C-x > Table of Contents Killing and deleting entity to kill: backward forward character (delete, not kill) DEL c-d word M-DEL M-d line (to end of) M-O C-k C-k sentence C-x DEL M-k sexp M-- C-M-k C-M-k kill region C-w kill to next occurence of char M-z char yank back last thing killed C-y replace last yank with previous kill M-y Table of Contents Marking set mark here C-@ or C-SPC exchange point and mark C-x C-x set mark arg words away M-@ mark paragraph M-h mark page C-x C-p mark sexp C-M-@ mark function C-M-h mark entire buffer C-x h Table of Contents Query Replace interactively replace a text string M-% using regular expressions M-x query-replace-regexp Valid responses in query-replace mode are: replace this one, go on to next SPC replace this one, don't move , replace this one, don't move DEL replace all the remaining matches ! back up to the previous match ^ exit query-replace ESC enter recursive edit (C-M-c to exit) C-r Table of Contents Multiple Windows delete all other windows C-x 1 delete this window C-x 0 split window in 2 vertically C-x 2 split window in 2 horizontally C-x 5 scroll other window C-M-v switch cursor to another window C-x o shrink window shorter M-x shrink-window grow window taller C-x ^ shrink window narrower C-x { grow window wider C-x } select a buffer in other window C-x 4 b find file in other window C-x 4 f compose mail in other window C-x 4 m run Dired in other window C-x 4 d find tag in other window C-x 4 . Table of Contents Formatting indent current line (mode-dependent) TAB indent region (mode-dependent) C-M-\ {C-x C-\} indent sexp (mode-dependent) C-M-q {C-M-^} indent region rigidly arg columns C-x TAB insert newline after point C-o move rest of line vertically down C-M-o delete blank lines around point C-x C-o delete all whitespace around point M-\ put exactly one space at point M-SPC fill paragraph M-q fill region M-g set fill column C-x f set prefix each line starts with C-x . Table of Contents Case Change uppercase word M-u lowercase word M-1 capitalize word M-c uppercase region C-x C-u lowercase region C-x C-1 capitalize region M-x capitalize-region Table of Contents The Minibuffer The following keys are defined in the minibuffer. complete as much as possible TAB complete up to one word SPC complete and execute RET show possible completions ? abort command C-g Type C-x ESC to edit and repeat the last command that used the minibuffer. The following keys are then defined. previous minibuffer command M-p next minibuffer command M-n Table of Contents

Buffers select another buffer C-x b list all buffers C-x C-b kill a buffer C-x k Table of Contents Transposing transpose characters C-t transpose words M-t transpose lines C-x C-t transpose sexps C-M-t Table of Contents Spelling check check spelling of current word M-$ check spelling of all words in region M-x spell-region check spelling of entire buffer M-x spell-buffer Table of Contents Tags find tag M-. find next occurence of tag C-u M-. specify a new tag file M-x visit-tags-table regexp search on all files in tags table M-x tags-search query replace on all the files M-x tags-query-replace continue last tags seearch of query-replace M-, Table of Contents Shells execute a shell command M-! run a shell command on the region M-| filter a region through a shell command C-u M-| start a shell in window *shell* M-x shell Table of Contents Rmail scroll forward SPC scroll reverse DEL beginning of message . (dot) next non-deleted message n previous non-deleted message p next message M-n previous message M-p delete message d delete message and back up C-d undelete message u reply to message r forward message to someone f send mail m get newly arrived mail g quit Rmail q output message to anouther Rmail file o output message in Unix-mail style C-o show summary of headers h Table of Contents Regular Expressions The following have special meaning inside a regular expression. any single character . (dot) zero or more repeats * one or more repeats + zero or one repeat ? any character in set [ ... ] any character not in set [^ ... ] beginning of line ^ end of line $ quote a special character c \c alternative ("or") \| grouping \( ... \) nth group \n beginning of buffer \‘ end of buffer \’ word break /b not beginning or end of word /B beginning of word \< end of word \> any word-syntax character \w any non-word-syntax character \W character with syntax c \sc character with syntax not c \Sc Table of Contents Registers copy region to register C-x x insert register contents C-x g save point in register C-x / move point to a saved location C-x j Table of Contents Info enter the info documentation reader C-h i Moving within a node scroll forward SPC scroll reverse DEL beginning of node . (dot) Moving between nodes next node n previous node p move up u select menu item by name m select nth menu item by number (1-5) n follow cross reference (return with 1) f return to last node you saw l return to directory node d go to any node by name g Other run info tutorial h list info commands ? quit info q search nodes for regexp s Table of Contents Keyboard macros start defining a keyboard macro C-x ( end keyboard macro definition C-x ) execute last-defined keyboard macro C-x e append to last keyboard macro C-u C-x name last keyboard macro M-x name-last-kbd-macro insert lisp definition in buffer M-x insert-kbd-macro Table of Contents Commands dealing with emacs Lisp eval sexp before point C-x C-e eval current defun C-M-x eval region M-x eval region eval entire buffer M-x eval current buffer read and eval buffer M-ESC re-executer last minibuffer command C-x ESC read and eval emacs Lisp file M-x load file load from standard system directory M-x load library Table of Contents Simple customization Here are some examples of binding global keys in Emacs Lisp. Note that you cannot say"\M-#"; you must say "\e#". (global-set-key "\C-cg" 'goto-line) (global-set-key "\e\C-r" 'isearch-backward-regexp) (global-set-key "\e#" 'query-replace-regexp) an example of setting a variable in Emacs Lisp: (setq backup-by-copying-when-linked t) Table of Contents Writing commands (defun <command-name> (<args>) "<documentation>" (interactive "<template>") <body>) An example: (defun this-line-to-top-of-screen (line) "Reposition line point is on to the top of the screen. With ARG, put point on line ARG. Negative counts from bottom." (interactive "p") (recenter (if (null line) 0 (prefix-numeric-value line)))) The argument to interactive is a string specifying how to get the arguments when the function is called interactively. Type C-h f for more information. Table of Contents GNU emacs reference card info Copyright 1987 Free Software Foundation, Inc. designed by Stephen Gildea, March 1987 v1.9 for GNU Emacs version 18 on Unix systems Permission is granted to make and distribute copies of this card previded the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. For copies of the GNU Emacs manual, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02139. Table of Contents